Preparation Day 1 - Development of the Pilgrimage

The serial pilgrimages, day by day during Lent, recalled for the people, and especially for the catechumens, the great martyrs, who had made the journey with Christ, enduring their own suffering and torture, finally joining Him on Calvary in their own deaths.  The Stational pilgrimage of Lent made present that great cloud of witnesses, the communion of saints and martyrs - indeed they became almost tangible to those early Christians who followed in their footsteps throughout the pilgrimage.  But in her wisdom, the Church did not leave her children in sorrow and pain on Calvary at the Crucifixion, but eventually continued the station church pilgrimage on through Holy Week and the Octave of Easter as well, into the full joy of the Resurrection.

The pilgrimage tradition in Rome quickly became very popular, so that even by the early days of the 6th century, Pope Symmachus saw that pilgrim hostels were needed, close to the tombs of Peter and Paul, as well as that of the third principal patron of Rome, St Lawrence.  This enthusiastic flow of pilgrims in Lent and Easter continued throughout the first millennium. 

By the end of the 6th century, Pope St. Gregory the Great had fixed the order of visitation of the churches during the Station Church Pilgrimage, although in later years the pilgrimage was expanded to include additional stations.  The churches of the Station Church Pilgrimage and the Roman liturgy were interrelated; the lectionary for Mass and the breviary readings for each day of Lent recalled events that were in some way related to the saint entombed at the church that was visited on that day.  Did the martyr and church of the day  determine the lection (reading), or did the lection for the day determine which would be the church of the day?  Evidentally a little of both.

The oldest surviving lectionary of the Latin Church, in the mid 8th century allows us to see the liturgy that had developed during the previous century, the century of the death of Pope St Gregory in 604.  It is not difficult to see the interrelationship of the lections of a given day and the statio of the day, even at that early date. We will explore some of these readings as we visit the churches throughout the pilgrimage.

In the earliest days of the Church, Mass was not said on Thursdays, but in the eighth century, Mass on Thursdays was instituted, and with it, the need for additional stationes, expanding the 25 churches that were originally fixed by Pope Gregory.  Gradually the number of stations increased through the years until  Pope Leo III (795-816) completed the designation of the stational churches of Rome throughout the entire 40 days of Lent, Holy Week, and the octave of Easter. 

Tomorrow we will take a look at a brief history of the station church tradition through the last millenium.  Till then . . . . .